FROM CANTONMENT STEVENS TO FORT DALLES. 529 



hand trail in going eastward which you followed, I look the one to the left, and thus avoided the 

 steep and high mountain crossed by your party; and though I found the route much obstructed 

 by fallen timber, yet the character of the country offered no further obstruction to the passage of 

 wagon trains, or for a railroad route, save the divide itself, which has an estimated height of fifteen 

 hundred feet above the level of the valley, and which from base to base is from a mile to a mile 

 and a half wide. The mountain is formed of schist rock and friable sandstone. At this point a 

 tunnel, from a mile to a mile and a half, would be inevitable. By the peculiar formation of the 

 valleys on either side, the summit of the mountain could not be gained by a single grade. By 

 your estimate, this gap or pass is two thousand feet lower than the one you crossed, and is, in my 

 judgment, the lowest gap in the range. It could be made a good wagon road by cutting and 

 making a road along the side-hills, and having the road make one or more bends in gaining the 

 summit. The present trail crosses and recrosses the river several times, but these, in a good 

 measure, could and would be avoided by cutting a road on either bank, which is perfectly feasi 

 ble. The stream flowing from the mountain to the St. Mary s river is called the St. Regis Bor 

 gia. The road at present is much obstructed by fallen timber, but this could be removed without 

 much difficulty. I would have had my party at work on the road this summer, had not instruc 

 tions ordering them to the Dalles been received by me in June last. I would mention, at this 

 point, that Mr. Adams passed over this road from the Bitter Root valley to the Dalles of the Co 

 lumbia in eleven and a half days. 



This route, therefore,! pronounce to be the most feasible and practicable, and possesses advan 

 tages superior to any that I have examined in the whole range of the Bitter Root mountains. It 

 is true that the route formed by the natural gaps of the mountain of the St. Mary s river and the 

 Clark s fork of the Columbia is one involving no tunnel, but it does involve a length greater by two 

 hundred miles than the Coeur d Alene route. The surface-work forming the divide of the Bitter 

 Root mountains I found to be friable, and apparently easily acted upon by the weather, and 

 which I think would be found to be easily worked by the saw. I do not deem it necessary to go 

 into details as to the character of the country from the St. Mary s river to the Bitter Root divide, 

 since the party under your command examined it in October, 1853. Nor do I make mention of 

 the country from the Bitter Root divide to Wallah-Wallah, since that has been passed over and 

 examined by James Doty, Esq., in September and October last. 



Having, therefore, examined this route previous to receiving your letter, I did not deem it inex 

 pedient to follow a different route on my way to Fort W^allah- Wallah. The only route left to be 

 examined in the whole range of the Bitter Root mountains, was the pass by what is called the 

 Lo-Lo s fork of the Bitter Root river. The route had been represented to me by some to be very 

 rugged and difficult, and by others as feasible and practicable. I therefore decided that, as Mr. 

 Doty was to take the route by the Coeur d Alene country, I would examine the Lo-Lo s Pass, and 

 meet him at Fort Wallah-Wallah. Accordingly we left the Bitter Root valley together on the 

 19th of September, encamping at the crossing of the river, after a march of twenty miles; but 

 owing to the straying away of one of my animals, we remained in camp on the next day, but 

 resumed our march on the 21st, which commenced clear, bright, and pleasant. We halted a few 

 minutes to make a sketch of the entrance to the Lo-Lo s Pass, when we crossed the river to the 

 left bank. The stream, at the crossing, is well timbered with the cotton- wood and poplar, and is 

 fifteen yards wide, with good banks on either side, and channel-water two feet deep. The 

 mountains on each side of its valley, which here is five hundred yards wide, are quite high, and 

 well timbered with the pine and cedar. The trails for six miles being on the left bank, through 

 a low prairie bottom, at the end of this distance we crossed to the opposite bank, still finding an 

 excellent road passing through beautiful pine openings. A short distance farther we crossed the 

 stream a third time, when our trail, being up the left bank, passed over a series of side-hills, some 

 of which proved quite steep and fatiguing to our animals. But little fallen timber was, however, 

 found on these mountains. The growth being quite large, was consequently much scattered, thus 



